Friday, November 13, 2015

Boston Globe Telescope

"Harvard-MIT team announces discovery of new exoplanet" by Felicia Gans Globe Correspondent November 11, 2015

For decades, astronomers have studied faroff stars and planets in the Milky Way galaxy, never finding an Earth-sized, star-orbiting planet close enough to study in depth.

But now, scientists say, they’ve discovered a new planet, just 39 light years away, that offers an exciting research opportunity....When is the first shuttle because I would like to be on it and off of this cursed rock called Earth that has been ruined by the elites.

The Interior Ministry released a statement Thursday amid press reports that Neruda might not have died of cancer. The statement acknowledged a ministry document dated March of this year, which was published by the newspaper El Pais in Spain.

‘‘It’s clearly possible and highly probable that a third party’’ was responsible for Neruda’s death, the document said.

However, the ministry cautioned that a panel of experts investigating the highly disputed topic had not reached a conclusion.

Neruda was best known for his love poems. But he was also a leftist politician and diplomat and close friend of Marxist President Salvador Allende, who committed suicide rather than surrender to troops during the Sept. 11, 1973, coup led by Pinochet.That is in dispute, and notice the date? There were 911s before 911, but both were brought to us with the help of the CIA.

Neruda, who was 69 and had prostate cancer, was traumatized by the coup and the persecution and killing of his friends. He planned to go into exile, where he would have been an influential voice against the dictatorship.

But a day before his planned departure, he was taken by ambulance to the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago, where he had been treated for cancer and other ailments. Officially, Neruda died there on Sept. 23 from natural causes. But suspicions that the dictatorship had a hand in the death have lingered long after Chile returned to democracy in 1990.

Neruda’s death was so controversial that in 2013 his body was exhumed for examination.

Tests showed no signs he was poisoned, but his family and driver were not satisfied and requested further investigation. The judge investigating the case has asked for testing for substances that were not looked for in the first round of tests.

"Venezuelan president gets flak on kin’s drug arrest" by William K. Rashbaum and William Neuman New York Times November 13, 2015

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday charged two men — identified by a person briefed on the case as nephews of the wife of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela — with conspiring to ship cocaine to the United States.

The two men, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, were arrested in Haiti on Tuesday at the request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration and handed over to its agents. They were then flown to New York to face charges, according to the person with knowledge of the case.

The pair appeared in federal court in New York and were ordered held without bail on US narcotics charges.

The men are both nephews of Cilia Flores, the influential wife of Maduro, the person said.

She is one of the most powerful people in the upper echelons of government and is frequently seen at her husband’s side.

Hardline opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday called for Maduro’s resignation, saying parts of his government ‘‘have become criminal organizations.’’

Venezuela’s more moderate opposition coalition called on Venezuela’s National Assembly to immediately investigate the situation.

--more--"You will have to scroll through Venezuela to see the last time the Globe brought me anything.Makes one wonder what skullduggery they are hiding and covering up.

"Colombia to legalize medical cannabis" AP November 13, 2015

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s justice minister said Thursday the country plans to legalize the cultivation and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Yesid Reyes, in an interview with Caracol Radio, said the new regulations will apply only to medical and scientific uses of the drug.

The news was a surprise in a country long identified with US-backed policies aimed at fighting the production of illicit drugs. The new policy would include Colombia in a wave of changing attitudes toward marijuana that has sparked recent legalization efforts from Mexico to Chile.

Colombian courts had already decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

--more--"Colombia is the closest U.S. ally in the region, and now they are not on board?

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